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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. rrata o )elure, id □ 32X 1 2 '3 1 2 3 4 5 6 THE MISSION OF THE PILCRIMS. \N ORATION DKLIVKUKD HEKOrtK THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OK THE CITY OF MONTREAL DECEMBER 22, 1S5S, B Y MONTREAL: r u iJ L I s II E u n V the society, 1858. II REV. S. D. BURCIIARD, D.D., l>.VSTi>P. OV TllR THIKTKRSTII STIt?:ET I'llESUYTEBIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK. I-,'. MoNTUKAi., Docoiiibci' '.".''l, is.'.s. KkV. S. J). IJlRCIIAKM, I). I)., Dear ,SVr; On hehiiiraf the New Eiiglaiul Society, tlio undorsigiipd licg to tomlcr tliiir sincoro tliiuiks, for the very able and elociueiit Orntion delivered before lliem tliis (hiy, and, feeling that it will prove deeply nitercst- ing to their friends and the public at large, respectfully request of you m copy of the same for publication. Very faitliiully your?, C. DOilWIN, I'rcHidenl X. E. S. Jacoii Dk Witt, Jr., Hi.iri'etary, MoNTitKAi., Dcecnibcr 'j;;d, 185S. Cfent/emeii : I do not feel at liberty to deny a request so courteously made. The Oration is therefore placed at your disposal, with sincere thanks for the nuiny and kind attentions received during my brief stay in your city. Most respectfully and truly yours, S. D. BUUCIIAKD. lion. C. DouwiN, •Iacoi! Dk Witt, Jr. ORATION. Ladies, and Gentlemen OK THE New England Society' : OuK mission, on this occasion, it must be confessed, is somewluit delicnte and peculiar. We meet on foreign soil, in a foreign city, and beneath a foreign flag, to talk of our civic life and history. We are promi)ted to this by filial respect, by patriot- ism, and by a liigh appreciation of moral excellence. It is a common desire, to preserve in memory the cliaracter and deeds of our ancestors. Every nation and people have had their days commemorative of higii paternal or patriotic worth. The Athenians, the G reeks, the Romans, held their founders in sacred veneration, and brought annual and votive offerings in commemora- tion of tiieir deeds and memory. We have no fabulous origin, no occasion to trace our history through the mythic lore of ages. Our fathers were real men, muT their landing upon Plymouth Rock a great historic truth ; their deeds are their imperish- able monument, and that rock emblematic of its stabili- ty and strength. Were we English, and were the aniversary we cele- brate that of tiie St. George's Society, we should have a iioldc I'uloL-'iinii to ])r()n()UiK'(', ii hrilliaut tlionu'li soinc- wlial l)l(M)(ly history to rctnu'c : \vv could hoast of a govci'iiiiuMit tlic most staldc, tlu' most man'iiiticciit on cai'tli; .'I (|iu'('!i iinlvcrsally and justly Itclovod, loi" licr nnmcrons and excellent virtues; ji judiciary the most intelliu^ent and e([uital)le in the annals ot* nations, l^it toe are Americans — tlu' veritalde sons of the old Pui'i- tans; as .s/!<'/f wv. sjn'ak, and, though among strangers, we are not exiles; though under ii ditlerent govern- ment, eJierislied as clti/ens, and indulged in oui* Yankee love of the Fatherland. In testimony of forgiveness and forgotten lends, \ve, the childi'cn of the rehel colonists, conui back to join in social fellowship with the children of tlu; loyal brother, under the mother's roof, and with the moth- er's blessing. AVe, here in the cold North, gather, in full sympathy with our brethren of th.e great Puritan family, scattered over the wide earth, to celebrate a day 'uished in the calendar of nations — " Anil where the sun, with softer lire-!, Looks on the vast IVifie's sleep, Tlie c'liihlren of the rilgrini Sires This hallowed day, like us, do keep." The orator, at your first anniversary, very appi'opri- ately presented the t;/-v/6»;< of the Pilgrims — what they saw in [)ers[)ective. The last, in his strict and truthful analysis, showed that they possessed the elements of character adapted to realize what had been conceived in vision. Our legitimate object is, to present the idtal actualized^ or, OIIIC- f" of i\ lit oil »!' Ilci' most But V 'I'm-; Missio.v ok 'iiri; I'ii,(,i;i M.- ^r riicy lii'st rise to our \*U'\v, like ii iiKtniiiiL!; stai" tVoni II loui^' nii!;lit of (larkiu'ss n\u\ l>;1ooiii, aixnit the iii'uldlc of tlic l(')tli ccutui'y, midci' till' lui^iis of irciii'v \'III., '^ liloodv J\rar\' " and her milder, Net ItiiJ'otcd micccss- ni', Klizalx'tli, all claimiiiL;' to \tv head of the visihlc (Mnii'cli, liaviiiij;' the ri^-lit to determine her doi-ti'iiU'S and forms of worshi]). The l*iiritaiis joined issue just here, and claimed the I'i^'ht to worsliip (iod ;u'(.'ordiiiL;- to the dictates of their own eonscieiiee. 'I'liis was theii' ij,Teat distineti\(' ])rincii»le. They rcL^'arded the human sou! as ahovi^ evT'i'vthinii; — above all material i^randeur, above edicts and compacts — and nothiuL;' must come between it and God. Their views found little syni[»atliy in Eni^land, and they left, after much ojjpo- sition and trial, for Holland, where the ])rincij)les of the Iteformation haii('li('(l hy a sense of the iVesh life tlint was then just kliidlinL,^ tlie (hfi'iiianl eiierixies (»f tlie human sonl, hut it had not yet inqjarted that cleai'ness of* vision and steadiness of aim wliieli ai'e th(^ result of a Inore favoi'cd and matured exjiei'ienee. The masses were I'isiiiLf and ehalini^' with a universal ui^dtation, yet they stat^irered likt^ a ])rmd and heaten ij'iant, u^roi)ini»' his way to the doors of his prison, and I'eelinu^ for the bars that still o|)|Mts(>d his deliN'ei'ance. Around the Euro- pean tumults lay the I'est of the world, in one uuUro- keu scene of (lesolati(Ui. The. i^reat Em[)ires of the olden time had perished tVom tlie earth, or heen petri- fied, standing' as they Avei'e in tlu^ day;4 of Noah. The old civilizations had all vanished, like shadows ovei- a rock, and were then to he deciphered <>idy tVom the ^I'catnesH of their ruins. K«4'ypt and IJahylon, (Greece and Home haent mass of rul)l)ish. True, this westei'u world had heen discov- ered, hut it remained an object only of the universal cu[)idity of the mercenary adventurer, or of the still more infatuated intolerance of the priestly fanatic. True, th(i invention of the marinei-'s compass had be- stowed on the genius of commerce the trident of the sea, Mild tlic discovery of the art ot' piiiitinii' had opened up ehaiiiiels of thoiii;'iit, even more nianitold than the suru'es of tlie ocean; still the world had scnrcely Ix'irnn to dream ol' the e.\])ansion and power of tliese two miii'htv forces of the modern civilization. True, tlu! ideas of tli(^ Reformation liad l)roken out from tlie fetters of a lieavy ami nmst hateful tyranny, l)ut they liad not yet assumed tlie vastness of ju'oirress, whicli ij^ives to the present i^eneration sucli an untold advanta|L!;e over the ])i'ecedinij^ ai^^es. True, many a sliip had saih'd over stormy seas. In ancient times, tliere was a sliip wliicli carried .fasoii to the acipiisitioii of the Golden Fleece. At the battle of Actium, a warship aided Augustus Ca'sar in the con(piest (jf the world, and, sinci*, there have Ixu'ii shi])3 which liave carried llawkes and Howe and Nelson, on the other continent, and Hull and I )ecatui' and Stewart, on tliis, to trium])h ; hut never was there a shij) on such a mission, or hearing' such a precious freightage, as the May Flower. See her, lik<; a wounded sea fowl, hovering round that stern and rocky coast, seeking a pjlace to die — the cold Decemher winds sigh- higthrougli her tattered shrouds, as if it were lu'r last re(piieni — hetween her and civilization stretched three thousand miles of pathless ocean — hefore her was an unhroken, snow-covered forest, wliei'e the howl of the wild ))east mingh'd with the fiercei' war-cry o^' the sav- age, and, yet, not a regi'et in man's heart to ^'■.ake his higli resolve, and not a tear to dim the lustre of a woman's eye. Surely, these I^ilgrims are on some Heaven- appointed mission, and h't it ])e our object, during this 10 ('iilin lioiii', toc(>ntpinj)];ito it, in its pli ij-siad^ ediicatlo}ud., ^xjliticid and reli(jiou-'s (y.q)ects. I. J^ir-s-f, we we to viav it in its riivsioAL a-s^^ect. Behold, tlu^n, the ideal actualized, the vision realized, as the mission of the Pils^rinis has l>een hasteninc* to its fnllillnient. See what changes in the physical as])ects of our land have been wrought, through their instru- mentality, since the date of their landing. As we retire into the dark and di'cam-like past, we see the solitudes of the wilderness un])roken, save hy the soft gush of bird-song, by 1)easts of prey, or savages prowling on the prairie or hot-pnrsuing in the war-patli. We see nature in all her wild sublimitv, with no mmi or trace of civil- ized man — her mountains rising in silent majesty, with all their mineral wealth as yet nnknovrn — her mighty rivers, deepening the chanrels in Avhich tliey had flowed for centuries, but bearirig no freighted wealth upon their bosom — her wide-extended prairies, all enameled with I'le wild flower, yet never yielding a rich and golden fruitage ])eneath the hand of a vigorous culture. See now, in the contrast, Avliat has been wrought ! Tlie dee}) and frowning forests have fallen before the axe of the bold and hardv adventurer. Where once the wretched wigwam stood, and its inmates reveled in the dance, stately cities, beautiful villages, and cultivated farms now attract the eye. Where once the whoop of the solitary hunter was the only hnnuin sound that echoed through the deep solitudes of the Avilderuess, may now be heard the noise of clattering machinery, n and tlie liiim of busy tliousaiKls. Where once the fra- gile canoe adventured on our inland lakes and rivers, hundreds of steamers, independent of Avind and tide, now move on their stately course, frein^hted with life and beauty. Instead of here and there an Indian trail or perilous foot-path, the whole huid is interlaced witli a net-work of railways, l)ringing the most distant part- into near proximity, and binding the Union together as with bands of iron. Though the Puritan family is widely scattered — througli the Canadas, on the Xorth, to the Gulf of Mexico, on the Soutli, from tlie Atlantie, on the East, to the Pacific, on the West — they may whim- per in each other's ears, along tidegi-aphic wires, as easily, and almost as audibly, as through tlie speaking tul)es of a dwelling. From a little one, we have, indeed, become a strong nation. Possessing teriitories equal in extent to all Europe, inhabited by nearly thirty mil- lions of active and enterprising human beings, auvl doubling in poj[)ulation every twenty years, the young Ile])idjlic already holds an envialde rank among the most powerful nations of the world. Tl.iougli not a fight- ing people, and having no standing army, yet, upon the Held, we have always T)een valiant, and victorious, secur- ing results which place us al)Ove the dread of aggression, enal)ling us to devote our energies to the renmnerative pursuits of peace. In commerce, in agriculture, in manu- factures, we rank among the first. Our ships are the firiest that sail on any sea. Our implements of agiicul- ture, illustrating the inventive faculty of the Yankees, liave tended greatly to modify the original curse — " In tlie sweat of thy brow slialt tliou eat 1)read." Our fab- ii 12 rics and manuftictures sliow the triumpli of genius and art, and will not snfter in the comparison Avith those of France and England. Oui's is a virgin soil, the richest in the world. Our fields are broader and more luxuriant, and, what is bet- ter, they are owned and tilled by an honest-hearted and clear-headed yeomanry, who call no man "Lord or Master." In Europe it is not so ; not even in Great Britain — the tillers of the soil are generally the humlde tenantr)', whose hard earnings nmst largely contribute to the su])- port of a lordly aristocracy. In many of the States on the Continent, matters are still worse ; all motives and stimulus to industry, especially with the lower classes, being removed, begging, as a system, or starvation, is the only alternative. In Italy, with a soil naturally rich, a climate unsur- passed, this is emphatically true. Troops of beggars, soldiers and mendicant priests, meet you at every turn. Pauperism and palaces, rags and rol )es, tamine and fash- ion, loafers and lords, are the sjid and ])ainful contrasts whicli everywhere meet the eye in that land of beauty and art, and all this as the result of a system which taxes to oppression, and absorbs all the material wealth of the country. Everything there, as well as in Austria, Prus- sia and Germany, is stagnant, retrogressive, indicative of a splendid past, a dead present, and a still more doubt- ful future. How different from all this is the state of things in the land of the Pilgrims ! Each day sees some new conquest achieved in the primeval forests — some tract of waste land subjugated and brought under cul- tivation. The descendants of the Puritans are every- wliere at work, not only digging out the solid granite of their native hills, but the gold of California — ])io- neering the civilization of the West, wayfaring the desert, and making the Avilderness to bud and blossom as the rose. Their mission is in progress of realization, and, viewed even in a physical aspect^ in the reclamation of a land from the solitudes of a wilderness, in the cultivation of the soil, in the accumulation of material wealth, in the growth of cotton and corn in quantities sufficient to clothe and feed the destitute of half the world, is calcu- lated to make one proud of tlie fact that \\vi infjincy was cradled in the land of the Pilcrrims. We are not insensible to the aid received by the con- stant and increasing inmiigration from abr(^ad, but we mean to say, that our country would not be what .t is, in extent, in enterprise, in agriculture, in commerce, in all the sources of material wealth, l)ut for the strength and energy developed on Plymouth Rock. Suppose it were possible for one of the old Pilgrims, who landed from the May Flower, to join in our festivi- ties to-day. He speaks to us of the vision and of its realization. Ho says, "We saw and anticipated but little of what it is your privilege to enjoy. We sought a refuge and a home for ourselves and our chil- dren, where we could Avorshij) God under our own vines and fig-trees, with none to disturb or make us afraid. Our hopes were on another life. For conscience and for God we were willing to sacrifice all, and we did sacrifice all, home and country. Our bones were buried u deep and obscure in tlie sloping bank tluit looks out towards our Fatlu'i'land. No liillock or stone must reveal the place of their repose, lest the savnge foe should wreak his vengeance on our humble graves. "VVe little dreamed of this wide extent of counti'y, this physical wealth, this refinement, these luxurious abodes, tliese magnificent cities, these works of 1)eauty {uid art, as being the inheritance of our children, the result of oiu' toil and sacrifice. We rejoice with you, and 1)id you 'God speed.' do forward and accom})lish your high mission, and ])rove yourselves the Avorthy descend- ants of Carver and Brewster, and Bradford, my illus- tri(His compeers, who landed from stormy seas on the rock of Plymouth." II. In. ike second place ^ let \is vieio the miss ton of tie Pilgrims in, an edt^catioxal aspect. They were designed, in the plan of Providence, to be the educators of succeeding generations. They them- selves had l)een educated for this ])ur2)ose, not in Polytechnic Schools, nor in luxurious and classic halls, Init in the school of suffering and of trial. Their minds had been made elastic and strong by the severest disci- pline, and by an intimate and constant fellowship Avith the great truths of God's word. They were men of deli]:)eration and forethought, and could clearly see that their vision could never be realized without a wide-spread intelligence among the people. So soon, therefore, as they had reared a shelter over their heads to protect them from the cold December's blast, and built an altar of AA^oi-ship, they laid the foundations for 16 tlie Coiniiioii-School. Tlioy luul installed the Bible first of all ill their affections, then in their households, and now as the source of all light and Avisdoni, in the education of their children. It was the hasis of all tlieir hopes, and must l)e the text-l)ook of all their instructions. As soon Jis a new settlement was formed, the Church and the Scliool were planted, as indispensal)le and in- separalde. Tlie p()[)ulation increased no faster than the means of instruction were multiplied. They designed that the people should grow in Icmnrlethje as well as in grace, and that the facilities for wliich sliould Le fur- nislied and sustained at the public expense. They re- cognized a co)nm unity of interests, and aimed at the universal good, and determined that the 1)lessings of education, like the rain and sunshine of Providence, should descend alik(} upon the evil and the good. For the first time, in tlie history of the world, the principle was suggested and adoi)ted, that the education of youth was the duty of the Commonwealth, the ex- pense of which was to be defrayed 1>y a tax ui)on pro- perty, to which those who had no children were as much requu-ed to contribute as those who had. Educa- tion was justly regarded as the right of all, and not the privilege of the few. In knowledge was recognized an element of safety and strength, in which all were in- terested, and for which all were bound to pay. The parish, or religious society, and the common- school have ever been, and are, the characteristics of New England. They Avere not exotics, transj^lanted from another clime, l)ut the spontaneous growth of the soil, and their roots were twined round the lil^res of the T popular heart. Tliey formed tlie instinct of social order, and practically trained and taught men how to l)nild themselves into a state. The common-schools of New England are the grand corner-stone of our Ameri- can fabric. They have been rich sources of blessing to individuals and to the State. See in Franklin an illus- tration of their utility : once a Boston school-boy, receiv- ing not an hour's instruction, except in the ])ublic insti- tutions of his native town, afterwards you see him the sage, the patriot, the philosopher, standing before princes, mastering the subtleties of science, devoting himself to the cause of his country, and at last coming down to his grave full of years and. of honors, while upon his tomb-stone was inscribed, by a foreign hand, that mngnificent epitaph : ^^ Eripuit cfclo falinoi sceptumque fi/ratuiis." See Sanniel Adams, that pillar of the revolution, so firm, so patriotic, so incorruptible, that even his Avorst enemy said, there was no office under the British crowii that could seduce him from fidelity to his native land. See John Adams, the son of a New England farmer, trudging to school with his satchel upon his arm and inuring liimself to hard toil and study during the days of his minority, to stand at last in the halls of the Continental Congress, the Ajax of his country. The Grecian Ajax, when surrounded by darkness in the day of battle, addressing liimself to his deity, im])lored for light, saying : "Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore, , Give me to see, and Ajax asks no more." I T II The mind of tlio Aniericjin Aiax luul seen the lii^lit, MS kindled hy the school-houHeM of his native New Enghmd, and, amid the terrors and darkness of that day which tried men's souls, he stood firm and un- moved, a prodigy of strength — the exponent of that gi'eat spirit which animated the hearts of his country- men. We cannot pause to recount the l)enelits of that system of common-schools which had its oi'igin in the land of the Pilgrims. It was the germ of that future development which is now the ornament and the boa^st of the American peo[)le. Our common-schools, like the blessed sunlight, are spreading their henefac- tive influence over the entire land. They are open and free to all. No high barriers are reared around their threshold — no sect, nor creed, nor aristocratic class can claim pre-emption there, but all alike are invited to come and partake freely, without money and without price. "With such generous intellectual fare, and so generally appreciated by the masses, we may confidently anticipate that they will never become the dupes of demagogues, nor sink into the chaos of anarchy, nor into the night of barbarism. When, therefore, we look with the eye of Christian patriotism over our country, more and more thickly dotted with school-houses and other and higher institutions of learning, then at our free press, free government and free Bible, all favorable to the acquisition of knowledge, and remembei' that all this is but the efflorescence and fruitage of that blessed seed sown by the hands of the Pilgrims, Ave may form some conception of the grandeur of their mission. It 2 IS may, iiulcod, ])0 said ihat avo have no standard national literntnro (M|nal to tliat of England and Germany, no universities to comi)are with Oxford and Caml)ridge. True, we are too yonng" for this; still, onr authors are lionored, and their works songht and repiddished in the Old World, and no one will i)resnme now to ask, in II tone of sareasm, " Who ever reads an American l)ook>" Some of onr colleges and universities are rising to an envialde disthiction; and, if not as scholastic and irre- tentions, ar(^ sounder in the faith than some on the other side of the waters, whose ecclesiastical leaninc^s are evi- dently toward Home. We may have no galleries of art equal to those of Italy, and no poetry or music like that which once floated over the Adriatic, or Lreatlied among the islands of the yEgean ; yet, for wide-spread intelligence, for practical utility, for all that constitutes a nation's wealth, power or influence, we occupy a commanding ])osition among the nations. Our circinnstances, as yet, have tended to make us practical, rather than poetic, earnest, rather than esthetic, in our life and literature. We have been doing foundation work, l)ut, when we shall have perfected our institutions, who shall say that we may not become as artistic as Greece or Home in tlieir p[dmiest days ; or, that some peasant may not be raised from the soil, who, like Burns, shall wreathe the plow with amaranths of living green, vie with Schiller and Goethe, or rival even the l)ards of English and Scottish story ? Already has our country produced a few names that were not born to die. A Bryant and a Halleck have struck the lyre of 10 A[K)11() with siicccsH in tlu^ newer iiud bettor world. Tlie first is Ji Druid of our j^'rand old forests — the second has transferred to his pai-'e the touching eh)(|uence of the wA man who inhabited them. I scarce need mention Long- fellow, Avhose laurels ai*e still fresh and green ; or Willis, whose i)oems are full of life and feeling; or Whittier, whose soul was stirred at the wrongs of the oi)pi'essed ; or Saxe, whose lines ring out like tlu^ merry laugh of childhood ; or Mrs. Sigourney and Gould, whose strains soothe and cheer us like the music of an angers harp. In theological lore, we can l)oji.st of some giants, such as Edwards, Dwight, Bellamy and noi)kiiis. In jurisprudence, who has ever written with more strength and acumen than Kent and Story. In the healing art, esj)ecially in the science and prac- tice of surgery, we have had those whose names will live with Cooper and Hunter. Sayre is a rising star, and Simms is, at this moment, doing a work for which the women of all lands will rise up and call himhlessed. In historical literature, the ivied chaplet has been well earned by Sparks, Bancroft and Prescott. In the department of forensic eloquence, Ave may point to the living and the dead, whose logic is irresist- ible, whose clarion tont^s have echoed round the globe. We scai'cely need l)reathe the names of that grand trio, whose remains slumT)er in the green graves of Quincy, Marshfield and Ashland. It may be doubted whether the great masters of the art have not found their rivals in the land of the Pilgrims. Our grand natural scenery, our peculiar institutions, our posts of honor and ])ublic trust, open alike to all, have .]| 90 tended to dcvclo]) the very soul of olocpKMice, Jind oui' pulpit, bar and st'Ufitc will not sufVcr in tlu^ comparison with the most ])olish('d nations on the i^lobo. We can scarcely make mention of our poi'iodical literature, cmr weeklies, monthlies, and more pond«'rous (juarterlies, which had their oriijfin in a ne\vspaj)er first [)ul)lished in Bost(m in 1701, and now have spread like the leaves of Valambrosa, in multiplied thousands, over the land. We do not say, that all would he a])proved hy the stern old Puritan. We gi'eatly mistake, if his spirit of intolerance would not burn more fiercely against much of the periodical literature now thrown reeking with pollution from the press, than against the witches that perished in the persecutions of Salem. We need a more rigid censorship of the press, that its mighty j)0wer may he wielded for good and not for evil, for th(i virtue and coronation of our risinc millions. III. Lithe tliiril ]^uce^ let us contenq^lcttc the mis-sion of the Pihji'uihs m a political a-^pecf. They, indeed, had little conception of the splendid procession of events that were to follow their move- ments. Their simple object was freedom of worship, and every interest, j)^ii'pose and organization were to he subordinated to this. They had not even dreamed, as yet, of a separate inde])endent State sovereignty. They were the loving and loyal su})jects of Great Britain, seeking, in the exercise of an inalienable right, an asy- lum, where they might worship God in peace, according 91 to their own lionost convictions. Bt'yond this, it is to ]hi (lonl)tc(l wlictlicr their vision extended. They vvonhl liJive heen content with tliis, Init (lod, in liis wiser phms, lijid (h^siu^ned and fitted tlieni, tlionij^li nncon- scionsly to tlieniselves, for a still hroader and grander mission. Tliey loved Enghmd and her laws, hnt n(>t the bnr- dens ol tendalisni, nor the prerogatives of the Crown, nor tli(? ])rivilege.s of the nobility, nor the right of pi'iniogeniture, noi* the civil grasj) of ecclesiastical trihn- nals. Their conce])tions of freedom, their claimerinciple of ndii^ious free(lom, which was dearer to the Pili^riniJ^ tlnm even life itself. Li the develojnnent of the historic drama, it became necessary to S(^[)arate from the mother country, and to throw off alleu^iance to the British Crown. The colonies liad ])ec()me extended, had ac- (piired strength and the oh'monts of self-support. And when the time came for tlie adoption of a new Consti- tution, suited to the somewhat diverse interests of the different States, see how the Puritan element workecl and triumphed in guarding the freedom of conscience with a vestal fidelity, and securing to man, as man, cer- tain inalienable rights. The Constitution, adopted by mutual concession and compromise, is sim])le and unique, resembling, in relations, grandeur and Ijeneficence, tlie planetary system, with its magnificent central orb, regu- lating and refulgent. By it all the various depart- ments of government, and the a2iproi)riate duties (►f each, are clearly defined, while the rights of the people and of the States are jealously and sacredly guarded. Its checks and balances are arranged with consunniiate skill, and its actual W07'hing,9^ that truest of all tests, proclaim it an honor to its authors, a l>lessing to its sub- jects, and a beacon-light to the world. The great prin- ci])les of hereditary equality and of universal suffrage are recognized, as they are not in the constitutions and practical workings of the governments of the Old World. We have no crowned heads, no kings to inherit thrones by right of descent, no nobles " to the manor born," no patrician privileges — the way to wealth, to fame, to political preferment, is open to every plelieian foot. With us the people are sovereign — the great questions that are to affect the interests of the country, or the wi'onirs under which we suffer, are submitted ultimate- ly to the ballot-box — "A weapon that com 3S down as still as snow-flakes full upon tlie sod, And executes a freeman's will, as lightning does the will of God." To this system, the people cherish an unconquerable devotion. A rem ark aK . proof of this is found in the fact, that while continental Europe has been weltering for years past in the agitated waves of revolution, and it has required the utmost strength of its disciplined soldiery to suppress the tumults of the people, not a revo- lutionary voice has been raised among us ; and all our millions, Saxon and Celt, natives, and gathered from every land, would unite to execrate the wretch who should seriously attempt the subversion of our political fabric. We have our private opinions, our State preju- dices, oiair local interests, and sometimes a little skir- mishing m. Congress, but beneath all, underlying all, is the great sentiment, ive are Americans, reposing be- 25 neath the wings oi our Eagle, or under the Stripes and Star's. We aliall have agitation, and tliere may l)e some causes of a|)prehension, none of which are more appalling than that huge and monstrous system of do- mestic slavery, which clings to us like an unnatural excrescence ; still, with the same l)lessing which has hith- erto attended us, Ave shall live and not die, and, what is more, we shall live as united Americans ! Change and decay have, indeed, been the history of the governments of the world. Sceptres and sovereigns pass away like pictures from the screen of a phantasmagoria. Where are the great dynasties of the olden times ? Where now is the crown of the Stuarts, and the sceptre of the Bour- l)ons — those mighty sovereigns who sat unawed upon their thrones ? Gone ! But the Pilgrims' staif still stands erect and firm, and it is destined to stand, the pledge of freedom and a heritage of blessing to unborn millions. The reason of this hope is in the fact, that with us man is recognized as man, in all our laws, inter- course and institutions, and, when an appeal is made in the name of a principle common to man, every heart answers to the calk We find, amid the nations of the past and the monarchies of the present, the same sus- ceptibility to feeling; the same responsive ech<^, but not to the same external appeal. The people can say Vive VEmpereur^ or prostrate themselves to the earth, as the Pope is charioted along in splendor, or illumine their dwellings, and make the very air ring with their plaudits, when the hero returns victorious fi'om the })attle-field, but, our loudest shouts, our most deep-felt and prolonged hurrahs, ai'c for \ ) 36 hnniniiity! Wluit if tlie whole nation is toiling in M'oi'k-sliops, amid clattering machinery, or tilling the soil, or jostling against each other on the great thorongh- fares of trade, as if everything depended on pecuniary success — let the cry of oppressed humanity, or the shrill hlast of lil)erty, ready to l^e crushed by the tyrant, be T)orne to their ears, and you will find a stir among the people, a response from one end of the land to the other — ^the work-shop will be deserted, the oxen left unyoked in the field, while the hall >vill be full of men, or the broad arena crowded with those, whose shouts ring out through the clear air like the sound of mighty thunderings ! We love, brethren of the New England Society, thus to linger over the ^olitlaal promise of the land of our sires. We love to behold the first spring of the eaglet to the air, in circles of amazing sw^iftness and power, and see it outsoar every l)ird of the sky on its strong and steady pinions, to the sun. The march of our magnificent progress — the })ower and p)lay of our political machinery — the majesty Avherewith man, as mtm, walks that broad continent — the radiant flash, to the ends of the earth, of the stars that blazon our ban- ners, indicate the grandeur of our mission, and the still increasing glory of our destiny. Wlnle we thus con- fidently anticipate the stability and perpetuity of the Republican edifice, let us remember that its grand corner-stone was hewn out of tlie old Plymouth quarry, and if it stand, as we believe it will, amid the storms oud floods that beat upon it, it will l)e owing to the fiict, that it was founded upon a rock. To drop tlie 27 figure, Jiiid iwe tlie language of one of England's nol)lest sons, "From the bruised seed of the poor and perse- cuted Pilgrims, has arisen one of the most powerful and prosperous empires in the world " — an empire destined to stand, because founded in prayer and in a deep-felt recognitio!i of man, as an immortal being, and eiulowed with a nature seeking religious homage. It is l)ecause God and the Bible and the baptism of the Holy Si)irit are recognized and enjoyed in the midst of us, that our hope is sanguine in relation to the permanency and pros- j)erity of our political institutions. Take away the Bible, and our sense of dependence on God, and the gi'ave which has received other republics would soon receive us. To you who have lec't us, to share the pro- tection and love of the mother country, while you feel safe and happy, under her noble form of government, let me say, forget not the hills and the hearth-stones of the homes of your childhood. " You have left the dear land of the lake and the hill, ]5ut its winds and its waters will talk with you still ; ' Forget not,' they whisper, ' your love is ovr dcht,^ And echo breathes softly, ' We never forget /' " IV. In, tlie fotii'th 2)lace^ let ii-s contemplate the mission, of the Filfjrinis in a keligious aspect. They were pre-eminently religious men. Theirs was a religion of the head and of the heart — a religion of conscience, permeating every power and faculty of their being. It was the religion of the old prophets revived, and of the martyrs of the early Church — a rtdigion of princij^le and not of convenience, which ¥ 28 led them to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods. It made tliem exiles from the homes and graves of their fathers — jjilgrims first in Holland, among a peoj)le of T)arliarons tongue, then adv(^ntnrers in frail vessels on a stormy sea, then homeless strangers on the rock of Plymouth, with clouds and darkness round about them. But then it made them brave, heroic and full of hope. It kindled a bright light in the cabin of the May Flower. It made the storms and the winds, wdiich howled around them, soft to their ears a.s anthems of praise. Amid the perils of their first winter, and amid the ravages of fiimine and disease, it drove them back upon God, as the only source of endurance and strength. It tamed the rage of hunger, softened the rigor of cold, broke the sting of death. It was a cordial to the sick, a shield to the timid, a staff to the feeble, a hope to the despairing. It tvas tlieir all. It fully prepared them for their great mission, inspired them with Heaven's own wisdom, made them deej) in counsel, mighty in the Scriptures, musical, too, full of the great life-psalm of faith and hope, a living Epic before the world, more august than all mere time-heroes, because inlaid ^sitli that high supernal gi-ace which gives the soul its veiy gianthood and power ! Touched with the fire of patriarchs and i^rophets, they were nerved to superhuman energy, as they fore- saw the better life and coming resurrection. And a proud thing it is to mark their great mission in the w^)rld, as they went forth, like Nehemiah of old, w4th the wea- pons of war in one hand and the implements of peace in the other, to build their own Jerusalem. A proud thing it is to see how, before their sturdy handicraft and 29 indomitable courage, tlie i>Teat t'oT'est and all Imniaii foes had to fall alike; to note their spirit when life and honor were at stake, when for the soil yet unshorn and virgin, when for their altars and hearth-stones, yet in their rude simplicity, they pledged their all and plunged out into tlie struggle, in a time of darkness, tliat their children might have a free home and themselves an unpolluted grave. In many a secret as w^ell as open ])lace they poured their supplications and moulded their impress on all the forms of social order. Tlieir Sabbaths, their social compacts, the outgoings of tlieir inner and outer life Avere interpenetrated Avith the spirit of religion. They were not, indeed, perfect : they had not all the crentleness and tolerance which ever l)ecome the disci- pies of the meek and lowly Jesus. But we must con- sider the times in which they lived, the school in which they were trained, and the mission they had to accom- plish. Even the sterner and more inflexible features of their character seemed adapted to the work they had to do. They were to lay the foundations of Church and State, in the midst of dangers and obstacles the most formidable that ever frowned upon the enterprise of man. They felt that they were set for the defense of the ark and the Shekinah in the wilderness, and that they would be held sacredly responsible for any unhal- lowed touch given to the one, or for any polluted feet that might enter the hallowed precincts of the other. Nobly did they execute their mission ; and New England, moulded by their influence, has ever been characterized as " the land of steady habits." Our noisiest charities, our boards of foreign and 30 domestic missions, our tempemncc3 reforms, our model institutions, oui simplest forms of church organization, had their origin on the very soil first trod by the Pil- jxrim Fathei's. From them we have inherited a reliofion the freest, the purest, the most aggressive in tlie world. It has l)ec()me the religion of the entire country, recog- nized in its laws, its constitution, its courts of justice — a religion, not Jewish nor Papal, but Christian^ mono})o- lized by no sect or creed, yet blesshig all, and oftering to all its hopes and its salvation. Thus we see, in our day, without any departure from the essential principles of our fatliers, a more enlarged and comprehensive Chris- tian philanthropy. It seems to be the American destiny, the mission which God has entrusted to ns, to show that all sects and all denominations, professing the fundamental truths of Christiiuiity, may be safely toler- ated without pnyudice, either to our religion, or to our liberties. Occupying such a vantage ground, having such educational privileges, such institutions, and such a religion, what is our mission to the world ? " Freely we have received, let us freely give." From om* high tower should be streaming abroad those mighty and manifold hifluences, which shall destroy despotism, and establish and vindicate the brotherliood of man. For this Avas America born, and baptized with God's own ba|)tism ; that in the end)odiment of a vast moral power, and the movement of a tremendous moral machinery, she should solve the great proldem of a world's freedom, and work out the glorious accomplish- ment of an emancipated race. When this shall be, what wonders of development ai •al :^nt will roll, ill swift succession, over the astonisliecl earth ; what new pulses of life will beat into the old and dismantled seats of former ages, carrying back, from the h(3me of the Pilgrims, a new and l^etter civilization into the very cradles of the human race. We are conscious that God is moving, even now, in an unusual manner, among tlie nations, and that the world has already ])assed into another and more amazing stage of its development in the history of human progress. The horoscope of cycles has just marked another triumph over the elements, in linking the two mightiest nations of the earth in closer bonds of symi)athy, and marshaling the enei'gies of both for the disenthrall ment of the race. Not till the shout of earth's ha})py and free millions shall ascend to heav^en, will the mission of the Pilgrims be fully accomplished. We look abroad upon the other nations of the world, some of them groaning under the heaviest Inirdens, some of them meditating revolution and change, some of them groi)ing in the nififht of io-norance and barbarism, some of them in the Avane and wrinkle of lioary decrei)itude, and we look to the land of the Pilgrims, and lo ! ]\y her grand old hills and rushing streams, there stands, like the angel of the Apocalypse, upon the land and sea, a gigantic form, in the fresh vigor and fair glory of trustful and exultant youth, all girt as a giant to run a race, all pre- pared, with heaven's own armor, for the furtherance of God's great designs, of reclaimhig and redeeming the world. This, then, is the mi'i-s'ioii^ and for this was this wide land opened — for this were three nations sifted, that i) a2 the prc»i)er seed nil^ht be secured — fur tliis was the May Flower freighted — for this were tlie Pilgrims schooled and prepared, and for this are they now pleading — Ly all the history of this world, by all the memories of the |)ast, by all the expectations of the future, by the strug- gles of mankind for freedom, by the blood of martyred saints, by the blessings of Christianity, both temporal and eternal, they are pleading that the great burdens of the race may be rolled off into the gulf of oblivion, that the Gospel, like a belt of glory, may encircle the wide earth, and that the shout may go up to the listen- ing heaven, — " The kingdoms of this world are become the hingdom of our Lord and of his Christ." Thus have we spoken of the Mission of the Pilgrims in its Physical^ Educational^ Political and Religious aspects. You perceive that they, under Providence, were the architects of a most glorious structure. They laid its foundation in the physical^ the ])asis of practical utility — the unhewn, unpolished granite moidded into but- tresses of native simplicity and strength. Above this rose, in Egyptian proportions, broad, massive and firm, the educational element, with its columns and pillars of Ionic grace, imparting at once 1)eauty and solidity to the structure. These were surmounted by architraves and entablatures, chiseled in Corinthian splendor, spanned by arches at once magnificent and strong, symbolizing and expressing their idea of a perfect state ; and yet, above these, crowning and finishing the whole, was a massive dome, as of pearl, radiant with gold and gems, a beautiful emblem of that Christianity — that pui*e reli- 33 gion which, at the same time, c()mf)letert and adornn the work. Its pinnach% kissed by the lio^lit of heaven, and catching the incoming glory of the Millennium that tips the hills afar, anticipates the earthly heaven whose glory hasteneth on. The Pilgrim Mission, laid in strengtli and ascending in beauty, modest but magnificent, simple but strong ; let us, like the votaries that from every corner of the world cast wreaths of roses at the column of Napoleon in the Place Vendome at Paris, cast the garian<1s of our praises at its feet and pay our homage to the Pilgrims' memory. I 'k " O! Thou Holy One and Jiwt, Thou, who wast the Pilgrims' truHt, Thou, who watchest o'er their dust, By the moaning aea ; By their conflicts, toilrt aud carea, By their perils and their prayers, By their ashes — make their heirs True to them and Tfut."